New controversy: Joshi called up CAG official
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A fresh controversy broke out in 2G case on Tuesday with the surfacing of a letter which suggested that Parliament's Public Accounts Committee chief Murli Manohar Joshi had called up a CAG official to press for expediting auditing work into spectrum allocation.
CAG official R. B. Sinha had written to Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta on July 13 last year about the call he had purportedly received from Joshi.
Joshi told him that "there was tremendous pressure on him from Parliamentarians, media etc about the examination being done by the Public Accounts Committee in respect of 'recent development in Telecom sector, including allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum and that if the probe is further delayed, the Executive would get the time to cover up the issue," the CAG's DG(Report Central) wrote.
"He (Joshi) further stated that in view of the tremendous interest, heightened anxieties and pressure from all concerned including media, it would be appropriate for the PAC also to submit its report soon after the CAG's report is submitted to the President during the Monsoon Session (of Parliament)," the official stated in the letter.
Joshi said that it would be appropriate that his (Sinha's) office briefed him and the Committee in "two and three days after the next meeting of the PAC scheduled to be held on 15th/16th July, 2010", Sinha told Gupta.
"I informed him that the matter will need to be taken up with the C&AG of India," the official wrote. In view of the revelation, Congress leader Digvijay Singh questioned whether estimates of the losses shown by CAG in the 2G spectrum allocation were inflated "at the behest of Chairman PAC".
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